Over the past month local media outlets, TV and radio reports and social media have been flooded with reports of Belfast city centre being gridlocked throughout the day. This is the result of a perfect storm - a combination of roadworks, the opening of Grand Central Station, road closures, defective traffic lights, increased traffic volume on account of Christmas shopping, bad weather, accidents at key intersections and drivers ignoring yellow box junctions.
The problem is that Belfast's road network is at full capacity and cannot cope with any more traffic. Telling commuters to work from home instead of driving to work only makes DfI officials look out of touch. About 10 years ago we had the same problem with the UK's air traffic system. There were times when UK-bound planes from the Continent had to be re-routed to destinations other than their original one. If you were lucky you ended up at Gatwick instead of Heathrow. If you were not, you landed at Schiphol... The solution then was to hire more air traffic controllers. Unfortunately in Belfast's case that's not an option. Media pundits have been vocal about this poor state of affairs while politicians have been remarkably quiet on the issue which comes as no surprise as the solution to the problem - while simple - will not be popular and could be a vote loser.
Defining the problem is not difficult: there are too many people using their cars to travel to Belfast instead of using alternative means of transport. The reasons for this are many-fold. I will list five of the critical ones in ascending order of importance.
5. Convenience: you travel at a time that suits you, in your personal, uncrowded bubble.
4. Time: it takes time to travel from your home to the train/bus station, sit on a bus or train, and get from the Belfast terminus to your destination. Double that for the return trip.
3. Reliability: Translink's service can be spotty, with trains and buses being cancelled at short or no notice.
2. Lack of connectivity: often public transport is not available when you need to travel or requires a multitude of changes.
1. Cost: it is significantly cheaper to travel into Belfast by car and park there than it is to use public transport.
Let's assume an average commuter makes the following simple calculation (the true cost is higher): your car gets 25mpg. You live in Bangor and work in Belfast and find a free car parking space. The return trip is 25 miles so you use 1 gallon of fuel. If fuel costs £1.30, that works out at about £6. An iLink Adult Day fare is £12. With a season ticket the cost is lower but factors 2, 3, 4, and 5 above come into play. Looks like a bit of a no-brainer... The crux of the problem is that people will value convenience over anything else as long as it does not cost them more than an alternative mode of transport.
So what is the solution? Spoiler Alert: You will not like it!
Translink's ticket prices just about cover the cost of the service. The unprecedented volume of traffic flowing into Belfast confirms that commuters and shoppers have figured out that it is not only more convenient to travel into Belfast by car but also less expensive compared to public transport.
If city planners want to reduce the volume of cars coming into the city centre, they have to make public transport more convenient and financially attractive. There are several ways of doing this:
1. Charge all private and commercial vehicles driving into the city centre to reduce congestion and pollution. These charges are already in place in London, Birmingham, Oxford, and Bristol. Belfast could join this "club" by charging car drivers £10/day. That would get people out of their cars into buses and trains in a hurry.
2. Double the on-street hourly car parking fee.
3. Start taxing free company car parking spaces as a benefit-in-kind based on a daily cost of £20 province-wide.
The proceeds would pay for the installation and administration of the congestion charging infrastructure and the building of more Park & Ride facilities. Better cycle lanes would be covered by the 10% of DfI's budget allocated to Active Travel - coming to about £80 million per year currently.
Commuters who want to maximise convenience and cost/time savings could use multi-modal travel by combining cycling with public transport and actively practice Active Travel instead of driving. This would reduce congestion while improving air quality and personal and public health at the same time. It would also be a big step toward achieving Northern Ireland's Net Zero targets.
The only obstruction to this is the lack of political will. To paraphrase an old idiom, Belfast and Northern Ireland burn while Stormont sleeps. It doesn't even fiddle! Politicians have to convey to the public that driving somewhere is not a right but a privilege that has to be earned - by paying for it. John O'Dowd and his department must stop sitting on the fence and get a politically difficult message out: the age of unrestricted motor car travel in Northern Ireland is over.
We can all see the result of local political inertia: it is gridlocked cities. Belfast is worst, but the situation during rush hour in Bangor, L'Derry, Ballymena or even Carryduff isn't much better. Belfast car commuters have an uncomfortable choice to make: they can either continue with the status quo and pay for commuting by car through much longer journey times and much higher stress levels, or they accept that higher charges for driving into and parking in the city centre will reduce traffic volume and journey times as commuters use alternative, often faster, and cheaper means of transport
The Department for Infrastructure must spell out to drivers: YOU are the problem. YOU are traffic. Embrace Active Travel, save time and reduce your stress levels by not being stuck in traffic jams twice daily.
Time is money, no matter how you look at it: either continue driving and waste personal time sitting in traffic or pay a congestion charge.
We have outlined the solution. DfI, it is time for you to get to busy!
Well said Achim! Translinks failure to invest in building new or reopening old rail lines can't be understated here too. The only real rail infrastructure investment for decades, the new Grand Central station, does little to solve the problem. The only increase in train frequency will be on the Enterprise service, which will move to hourly. No new services planned, no confirmed plans to electrify, and, despite the All-Ireland rail review making it clear that new lines were needed out to Omagh and Armagh, Translink are still "studying the feasability" of re-opening existing lines.